


Spell Bound By You

by natigail



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Basically families like the Lightwoods hunt warlocks and other downworlders, Dungeon, Enemies to Lovers, High Warlock of Brooklyn Magnus Bane, I wrote a sequel because I couldn't just leave it there, Imprisonment, M/M, Magic, Portals, Restraints, The second part takes place years later and now Alec is the one captured by the warlocks, Two Shot, Warlocks, Wrongful Imprisonment, and Magnus get captured by Maryse but no one knows he and Alec met a month ago
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-12
Updated: 2018-08-06
Packaged: 2019-05-21 12:11:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 17,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14915135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/natigail/pseuds/natigail
Summary: The Lightwoods were one of the oldest families who were tasked with hunting and killing creatures with demonic blood. Alec, Izzy and Jace were set to take over after their parents but they were already formidable hunters in their own right. It made absolutely no sense how Magnus Bane had managed to outsmart Alec when their paths crossed a month ago.Since then, Alec hadn't been able to stop thinking about the enchanting warlock or the moments that had passed between them. He had not been expecting to ever find the elusive warlock ever again, so he is surprised when he learns that his mother has captured him and Magnus Bane will soon be executed.Alec decides to go talk to him to sort out the confusing thoughts in his head. Only, the conversation makes him more confused and conflicted.





	1. Spell Bound By You

**Author's Note:**

> Cursive text indicates a flashback

“Alec! Jace!” Izzy yelled as she ran into the training room and interrupted their sparring session. Jace saw his opportunity to strike while Alec’s focus had been diverged by his sister, but Alec knew his best friend too well to fall for it.

At the last second, Alec twisted around, caught Jace’s hand and flipped him over.

Jace groaned on the floor and he looked up with an offended look.

“Don’t look at _me_ like that,” Alec scoffed. “You’re the one who tired to fight dirty.”

“Never,” Jace argued with a smirk on his face as he got on his feet.

Izzy made her way over to the two of them, her high heels clicking on the floor.

“Brothers, you’ll hear this,” she said. “They got Magnus Bane. _In magical binds_. He’s finally been apprehended.”

A month ago, Alec would have been ecstatic about such a revelation. He might have even smiled. Magnus Bane was a High Warlock – maybe even one of the most powerful warlocks in existence. And families like The Lightwoods protected the world from magical beings such as Magnus Bane. Warlocks were notorious for their selfishness and their disregard for human life. They would snap their fingers and get their way and they were dangerous and they needed to be stopped from causing harm.

Magnus Bane was supposedly amongst the worst of them. Countless murders, practices of dark, harmful magic and a whole lot more of sinister things in his file. He had been alive for centuries and no one thought he would ever be caught. No one had ever gotten close to him before, at least as far as official records showed.

It wasn’t the entire story. It was the reason why Alec felt like someone had poured ice into his veins and he wasn’t able to listen to whatever his sister was currently telling him and Jace.

The three of them – the two Lightwoods and their adoptive brother – were the next line of hunters tasked with tracking down and killing warlocks. They were all good. They could be deadly, if it was needed. If any of them had come across a warlock, their orders would have been clear and frankly, their instincts should have been enough. They should have attacked to kill.

No one knew that Alec had met Magnus Bane. He had stood face to face with him. He had even danced with him. Fuck, he had almost kissed the warlock.

It had all been a mistake. It had been a recon mission going awry. There had been glamour involved and Alec hadn’t been able to recognize Magnus Bane as a warlock until later that night. Magic had tricked him but that didn’t mean that Alec didn’t remember what they had talked about when he thought Magnus Bane was just a very charming human.

“Alec? Hello? Are you even listening?” Jace asked and nudged his shoulder. Alec almost tripped.

“You block a sneaky right-hook but now you’re almost falling over from a nudge? What is the matter, Alec?” Izzy asked.

Alec cleared his throat and hoped that none of his current thoughts shoved on his face. He hadn’t told anyone about what had happened with Magnus a month ago. He felt ashamed that he had left a possible once-in-a-decade chance of capturing Magnus Bane.

Or not in a decade, if he had truly been captured now. If they had managed to get magical binds on him, then he was done for. Warlocks were almost helpless if they were cut off from their magic. He would be sentenced to be executed in the morning, as soon as the kill order had been approved. It was a surprise that he had not been killed on sight but if they had managed to grab him and incapacitate him, Alec’s mother would surely make an example out of his death.

The memories from that night came flooding back into Alec’s mind and they were still so vivid, no matter how much he had tried to repress what happened over the month that had passed.

_“Oh my, aren’t you a pretty one? What are you doing here?” Magnus had asked him._

_Alec had been speechless, as the man had walked up to him. He was dressed to impress, in a gorgeous suit and a shirt that had no business being unbuttoned that far down. His dark eyes seemed amused at Alec’s inability to provide an answer._

_He hadn’t known that this was Magnus Bane, despite knowing exactly what the warlock looked like. Magnus had been using magic to somehow block that knowledge from anyone who saw him at that party. Alec hadn’t even come to party. He had gotten intel that there might be warlocks and he had decided to check it out despite not liking parties._

_“Drink?” Magnus asked, and extended a wine glass towards Alec, who took the glass with a little hesitation while he pretended like he wasn’t incredibly attracted to this handsome stranger._

“Where are they holding him?” Alec asked Izzy, forcing the memories down. “The holding cells in the basement?”

“Yes, I think so,” Izzy said, blinking in confusion but then she narrowed her eyes with suspicion. “Why?”

“Yeah,” Jace agreed. “Also, why are you frowning like that? This is a glorious day. Magnus Bane is one of the worst ones out there! Are you just mad that you weren’t the one to capture him?”

If only it was that simple. Alec could live with it if it had only been the fact that his professional ego had been bruised because he had failed to capture Magnus himself. If only that could explain the unsettling feeling that Alec felt in his gut. But he knew it was more than that.

He wasn’t sure if Magnus Bane was all that his file claimed that he was. Alec remembered the charmer, the flirt, the manipulator, when Magnus first had walked up to him at that party but he also remembered how they ended the night.

But he couldn’t say any of that to his best friend or his sister. They had been raised to fight, capture and kill warlocks. Izzy had always felt the worst about it out of the three of them and she had driven their parents insane with her constant questioning. Jace liked to break the rules but he generally believed in the ideology of the people who took him in when he became an orphan. Alec had always been the most straightforward of them, despite the irony of that phrase. He blindly believed what his parents had taught him. Until he realized that he had danced with a supposedly cold-blooded murderer who had let him walk away unscathed despite knowing who he was and what he and his family did.

He had wanted to get more answers. This was his opportunity. He needed to know what Magnus had truly done to him that night. He needed to know if the attraction, and the lingering feelings, had been real or if it was some sort of extremely powerful magic that could influence someone’s feelings.

“He’s a High Warlock. How often to you get to interrogate someone like him, right?” Alec said.

“You’re right,” Jace agreed. “I’ll come with you.”

“No,” Alec said before he came up with a good explanation as to why Jace couldn’t tag along.

Jace stared at him. “Why?”

“Err… you know how much I’ve studied warlocks like Magnus Bane, I would like to talk to him without you interrupting with dumb questions,” Alec reasoned and he braced himself for the predicable glare from Jace.

“I do not ask _dumb_ questions!” Jace argued and pointed a finger almost in Alec’s face.

“Jace,” Izzy interrupted. “I’m sure you can go see him too, if you want to. But you know how nerdy Alec is about all of this. If he wants ten minutes alone with one of the most dangerous warlocks in history, then that shouldn’t be a problem at all.”

Alec caught the sarcasm but he was still happy for his sister stepping in.

“Yeah, you can have a go later. Until then, you should finish up training. If I can catch your attack while I’m looking in the opposite direction, you clearly need the practice,” Alec teased.

“I’m knocking you on your ass during training tomorrow,” Jace said as Alec started to walk away from the training platform. “Mark my words!”

Alec waved behind him in a dismissive fashion but his mind was already focused elsewhere. Would he even be able to face Magnus Bane? He knew that he shouldn’t even go near the warlock. He might expose that they had met before and that Alec had been fooled by his magic.

In fact, why hadn’t the warlock already said that?

It shouldn’t have been Izzy coming with the news. It should have been his mother with a disappointed frown when she learned that he had failed to do the job she had raised him to do. Or even representatives from the Clave to collect and punish him for his failure.

Alec knew the procedures of keeping a warlock on lockdown. Immediately upon capture, the warlock would be restrained with magical binds that meant they couldn’t access their magic at all or take them off. It rendered them practically harmless and usually malleable because few of them knew how to fight without using their magic.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Alec heard his mother call out as he almost reached the stairs that would take him down to the basement level where the holding cells and Magnus Bane were waiting.

Alec turned around to see his mother and he had been expecting to see her with her normal poise but she stood awkwardly and an angry purple bruise marked the whole left side of her jaw.

“Mom, what happened?” Alec asked and rushed towards her.

“Bane is a fickle one, even with restraints on,” she said and turned away when Alec tried to get a closer look at the injury. By how she winced away, it wasn’t the only injury she had. Alec felt rage in his veins that this warlock could have hurt his mother.

“I ask again, where do you think you’re going?” she asked and there was ice in her graze.

“Down to interrogate Bane. He might have some information about other warlocks’ whereabouts,” Alec explained and he hoped that his mother couldn’t see through the lie.

He felt so terrible. His mother had gotten hurt capturing Bane. It wouldn’t have happened if Alec had managed to capture Magnus a month ago when their paths crossed.

“I doubt you will get much out of him, Alec. You know the warlocks look out for their own. Bane is a father figure to many of the younger ones. Interrogation will likely lead you nowhere.”

“I have to try, don’t I?” Alec asked with a shrug. “I just want to be useful. I’m sorry I wasn’t there to back you up. I didn’t even know you were on the trail of him.”

“Neither did we. He showed up while we were in pursuit of other warlocks. It was a lucky break.”

It didn’t sound like Magnus Bane to be captured like that. He seemed to fabulous for that, Alec thought, but he held his tongue.

“Huh. I’d like to read the report when it’s written,” he said. “But I would like to interrogate him anyway. If you will permit it, mother.”

“Permission granted. But watch yourself, son. That man has a silver tongue if I ever did hear it. Do not let him into your head.”

Alec nodded and straightened his back. His mother walked away and he took a moment to take a deep breath before returning to the stairs and descending down into the basement.

As he descended the stairs, he recalled Magnus’ silver tongue from that night.

_“I haven’t seen you around here before?” Magnus had said as he clinked their glasses together. “First time?”_

_“Yes,” Alec had forced out and lifted the glass to his lips. He didn’t even like wine but he needed something to settle the nerves settling in him as this intriguing stranger kept talking to him._

_“I’m glad you were wearing such a frown when you came in. Your death glare scared away anyone from approaching you. And now I can have you all to myself, pretty boy.”_

_Alec had fought a smile at the blatant flirtation because he didn’t know how to feel about it. Surly, this man was just winding him up?_

_“Why didn’t it deter_ you _?” he had asked._

_“Oh, my dear. There’s nothing that can quite deter me - certainly not something as trivial as a frown. And I’m quite used to death glares, so I fear I am immune to those.”_

_Not meaning to, Alec snorted out a small huff of laughter. There was something about this man but Alec couldn’t quite put his finger on it. His face looked oddly familiar but he couldn’t place where he’d seen him._

_“Excuse my manners, I don’t believe we’ve been formally introduced. What is your name?”_

_“Alec.”_

_“That’s hardly all of your name.”_

_“You haven’t given me yours yet,” Alec had countered._

_“I suppose that’s fair. I’m Magnus Bane.”_

_Wrapped up in the enchantment, the name didn’t connect with a High Warlock like it should have. Instead, Alec found himself smiling. Of course the gorgeous man had a nice name._

Alec reached the bottom of the stairs and he started to move toward the holding cells. There were only two and he knew no one had been in here when they brought Magnus Bane down. Alec had expected him to be guarded, if not by the foot of the stairs, then by the holding cell but he saw no one as he turned the corner.

They were alone.

Alec walked down the hall until he stopped outside of the cell holding one of the most dangerous warlocks in existence. If Alec wouldn’t be able to see the magical binds, he would have thought that the warlock was affecting the air around him. Alec certainly felt like the temperature dropped as he walked closer.

Magnus was sat on the floor, back against the wall and this elbows resting on his pulled up knees. His hands dangled in front of him. The magical binds on clear display with their faint glow in the relatively dark cell.

Alec couldn’t get himself to make a sound.

The warlock locked up carefully and Alec almost winced back as cat eyes stared right into his soul. Magnus Bane’s warlock mark was widely discussed. Most warlock marks were something additional, like horns, claws or a tail while Magnus’ was much more uncommon.

Alec hadn’t seen his unglamoured eyes before but right now he wished that he never had. Magnus looked absolutely furious and Alec fought the urge to take a step back to distance himself from the very dangerous man in front of him. Magical binds or not.

“Alexander Lightwood. What a pleasure to see you again,” Magnus said.

_“My name is Alexander Lightwood,” Alec had answered when Magnus had kept looking expectedly at him._

_If he hadn’t been trained to watch out for subtle changes in people’s expressions, he would have missed the worry flash across Magnus’ features._

_“What a name,” Magnus had replied, smirk on his lip. “I’m sure you must have a fascinating family. But tonight isn’t about them, is it? You’re here alone. Vulnerable. It’s quite irresponsible really.”_

_“I can take care of myself,” Alec had said, slightly offended that Magnus thought him incapable of defending himself._

_“Oh, that I am sure of. And how do you take care of yourself on the dance floor?”_

Alec wasn’t sure what to say to that greeting. He caught the edge of Magnus’ voice and the hard glare in his eyes. There was a lot of rage there, enough rage to tear this whole building apart if he had been able to access his magic.

“Magnus, I…”

The quiet hung in the air between them as Alec didn’t continue.

“I am sorry?” Magnus finished for him when Alec couldn’t figure out what to say next. “No, that wasn’t where you were going, was it? Your kind doesn’t apologize. You capture and execute people just going about their day.”

“That’s not true,” Alec said defensively and crossed his arms. “You’re a murderer.”

Magnus tossed his head back, resting it against the concrete wall behind him, as he laughed. It wasn’t like the jittery and magical laughter from the party that had made Alec feel butterflies in his stomach. This laughter came out cynical. Hard. Cold.

“Didn’t murder you, did I?”

No, he hadn’t. Alec still wasn’t sure why. He wanted so desperately to ask. Any warlock should have taken the opportunity to kill the Lightwood heir who would eventually lead the hunt of them. Alec had been stupid enough to walk into Magnus’ trap. The moment he had walked through the doors of that party, he had been affected by the spell and at the warlock’s mercy.

“Why?” Alec asked, even if he didn’t expect a straight answer from the cryptic warlock.

“Why didn’t I murder you?” Magnus asked, flexing his fingers. Alec noticed the lack of rings on his hands. He had worn multiple rings of different kinds at the party and his hands looked bare without them. Maryse must have taken them off him.

“Yes,” Alec said and balled his dominant hand into a fist.

“You caught me off guard, Alexander. I did not expect a Lightwood to walk into my party. Even more so, I didn’t expect the man plotting my death to be quite so… endearing. You were fun.”

“You didn’t kill me because I was fun?” Alec asked, astonished. Firstly, no one ever called him fun. Quite the opposite, in fact. People always said that he was too serious. He was too stubborn. Too focused on work. He didn’t know how to have fun. Izzy often joked about him having a stick up his ass.

Yet, here was a charming High Warlock calling him fun.

Magnus shrugged. “Despite what you think, I don’t just kill people. That’s your job. You hunt us warlocks, not the other way around. We’re just trying to stay alive.”

_“I don’t dance,” Alec had said._

_It wasn’t true. His mother had made sure he had dancing lessons because it allegedly helped with coordination when he was fighting. However, he didn’t want to walk out on the dance floor with this handsome stranger. He feared that he might faint._

_There was something almost predatory in Magnus’ brown eyes. Alec feared that his fragile and suppressed gay heart wouldn’t be able to take dancing with the dashing man._

_Magnus had smiled a little, just the corner of his lip twisting upwards, as he raised his glass to take a snip and hide his mouth. Alec had a feeling that Magnus had caught the white lie easily._

_“Well, that’s no fun. And you’re supposed to have fun at a party, Alexander. Besides, I’m the host and if I ask a guest to dance it would be rude to decline, would it not?”_

_Alec begrudgingly agreed but he still hesitated as Magnus elegantly and with perfect timing, handed off his glass to a waiter passing him and then extended his hand towards Alec. Alec took a big snip of his drink and reached behind to place the glass on the bar._

_He was really about to dance with this mysterious and magical man. As their hands met, he felt as if electrical current went all through his body, even if it lasted less than a second. Yes, he surely had no idea what he was getting himself into._

“Your file says otherwise,” Alec argued. “It says that you’ve destroyed entire cities in a rage, Magnus. You’ve killed several of my ancestors. You practice dark and manipulative magic. That last one I can account for personally.”

Magnus scoffed. “I have not destroyed entire cities. That’s a blatant lie. Your ancestors were coming after me, and my fellow warlocks, with deadly force and we responded in kin. As for the magic, that was not dark magic, Alexander. It was merely a little glamour on myself, so no one would be able to recognize me. I used no other magic on you that night.”

Alec froze. But… if Magnus was telling the truth, then everything Alec had felt and thought during that party been his own. It hadn’t been Magnus planting feelings in his heart or thoughts in his head. It hadn’t been magic that made him lose his breath.

But he wasn’t sure why he was even entertaining the idea that a warlock was telling the truth. This might just be all an elaborative ruse to get Alec to let his guard down.

“You don’t believe me,” Magnus said and got to his feet. He moved elegantly as ever, stalking up to the bars until he standing face to face with Alec. Alec wanted to move back, create space between them because currently the relatively wide bars made him feel like there was nothing stopping the warlock from reaching out and grabbing him.

Yet, he stayed. He wasn’t going to cower in front of a warlock and most certainly not a warlock who had already humiliated him once.

“You’re a pathological liar. We have interviewed people you’ve talked to. You’ve told them a lot of different things. It’s almost impossible to figure out what’s actually the truth when it comes to you.”

“Ask me then.”

It was such a simple statement but it left Alec feeling unbalanced and unsure. Ask him?

“Ask you?”

“Yes, my dear Alexander,” Magnus said, light mocking in his tone despite the use of the term of endearment that made Alec feel a certain type of way. “You say that you don’t know what the truth is, so what better than to get it from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.”

“You could just lie.”

“Yes,” Magnus agreed. “I could just lie. But why should I? You have me caught.”

Magnus raised the magical binds. The thin glowing thread that bound his hands together looked like it could be snapped in half if Magnus used the strength he visibly had in his upper body. But Alec knew that the binds wouldn’t budge from physical strength of the person they were binding.

Magnus was granting him a rare opportunity. Perhaps, he could get some information out of him that could lead to the warlock networks that they had tried and failed to track down for years.

“I can ask you anything?”

“No, I did not say that,” Magnus argued waved a finger back and forth. “Ask me what you’re curious about, regarding me. One question about my fellow warlocks and I will happily keep my mouth shut until my inevitable execution. When is that, by the way?”

Alec wasn’t sure he should be giving the warlock any information at all but this was such a small request and it might earn him some goodwill. It didn’t matter if Magnus knew when he was to be killed.

It was just the fact that Alec’s stomach turned a little at the thoughts of Magnus being beheaded and how they’d probably gouge out his eyes post mortem. Or, an even worse thought entered Alec’s mind, they might take away his eyes while he was still living to torture him for his crimes. It wasn’t the custom but a lot of people hated Magnus Bane for what he had done and even more for his taunts while being able to evade capture for so long.

“Is that a flash of sympathy for the dangerous warlock that I spot?” Magnus asked, voice teasing and light despite the grave circumstances.

_“Is it really your party or are you just saying that you’re the host, so I will dance with you? I’m sure the invitation didn’t mention anything about the host’s name.”_

_“I suspect you haven’t got an invitation at all, do you, Alexander?” Magnus had countered as he slowly dragged Alec towards the dance floor._

_Alec felt like his ears burned and he fought the urge to duck his head. He didn’t have an invitation but he had procured one when he had heard that warlocks might be in attendance. In fact, he should be paying attention to that and not the man leading him out to dance._

_But he couldn’t bring himself to protest. He was getting giddier with every step because he had never thought that a man would ask him to dance. And here, in a place where no one knew who he was, he felt safe enough to do it._

_“Is that embarrassment I spot on your lovely face?” Magnus had asked. “Do not worry, Alexander. I’m quite happy that you snuck in. Your presence makes this evening rather intriguing.”_

_Magnus came to a stop, approximately in the middle of the dance floor, and turned back around to face Alec. He placed his hand on Alec’s shoulder and moved in close. Alec felt as if the breath had been sucked right out of his lungs when Magnus’ face came close to his and he was thankful for the slight height difference or Alec wasn’t sure what he might have done._

“No,” Alec argued harshly and he took a step back against his intentions. “I don’t feel sympathy for you. You’re a bad and dangerous man, Magnus. You have committed countless of crimes. You have to pay for them. W-with your life.”

Alec couldn’t stop the hesitation in his voice. It was an unwelcome feeling and realization but he didn’t want the man in front of him to be lying lifeless on the ground. But he couldn’t admit that out loud. He just couldn’t.

“Yes, you and your self-established laws. Boring, if you ask me.”

Alec felt a spike of rage. No one insulted the Lightwood Laws. But Alec knew how to keep his temper under control. And he wasn’t going to throw away the opportunity to speak to Magnus and get a few things cleared up.

And the warlock had insinuated that he would be honest.

“How did they catch you?” Alec asked, deciding to start with an easy one.

Magnus smiled shyly and leaned his side into the bars. He was acting as if he was lounging on a sofa rather than cell bars while he was trapped in magical binds.

“You don’t know?”

His mother hadn’t specified. Just that it had been a lucky break and that they had been in pursuit of other warlocks.

“I would like to hear it from you,” Alec said.

“I created a portal to interfere with the other Lightwoods – your parents, I assume – who had discovered a safe house for warlock children. They had already killed the caretaker, a warlock I didn’t know well but who reportedly had a heart of gold, and they were rounding up the children to take here or somewhere else. Some of those kids are under five years old.”

Alec tensed at Magnus’ explanation. Warlock children? That was one of the grey spots in his opinion. They were still warlocks and they should be apprehended before they turned into adults and started hurting people but at the same time, most of them probably hadn’t hurt anyone yet. Was it excusable to remove them pre-emptively? What had his mother even intended for those children? Were they to be locked up or did she plan on seeking approval to kill them?

“So I interfered. The children got away safely but unfortunately that left me too vulnerable and then these were on my wrists before I could get away. I managed to strike the woman in the face but I don’t think I broke anything. Unfortunately.”

“That’s my mother you’re talking about,” Alec grumbled.

“I wouldn’t be saying that quite so protectively, if I were you. She was terrifying the children. I don’t even want to know what she intended to happen to them, if she had managed to catch them. They’re children, Alexander. They are innocent children, who were just born as warlocks. They have done nothing wrong. They can’t help how they are born. You of all people should understand that. I certainly did in more ways than one. Being a warlock is one thing but being a bisexual man of color isn’t a breeze either.”

Alec clenched his jaw. “People don’t know about me.”

He hadn’t explicitly told Magnus either but the man had just seemed to know. He braced himself for Magnus to either ridicule him or something worse but instead, Magnus’ voice turned soft just like it had when they had been dancing.

“I guessed that. But it’s okay, Alexander. It will be okay. You will be okay.”

Alec felt the emotions rush back in his chest and Magnus shouldn’t be speaking so reassuringly to him. Not when Alec was the son of the people that caught Magnus and the ones that would see to him losing his head. He shouldn’t be extending kindness towards someone like Alec.

_Alec had never danced with a man before and he felt like he was floating. Part of him was sure it was because of the specific man he was dancing with. Magnus let Alec lead, at least in terms of how they were positioned, but Alec got the feeling that Magnus was the one in control._

_“You have the most adorable smile on your face, do you realize?” Magnus had asked when he moved in close as they danced, and his lips almost touched Alec’s ear and he felt a shiver go down his spine._

_“That must be your work. You’re quite magical,” Alec said without thinking because his brain was short-circuiting. When he realized what he had said he was about to open his mouth and take it back but one quick glance at Magnus’ face stopped him in his tracks._

_Magnus was smiling at him, not one of those shy or coy smiles, but a genuine wide and happy smile that reached all the way up to his eyes._

_“Well, Alexander. Consider me charmed,” Magnus said and changed his hands so he could push Alec away from him only to spin him back in and have them end up almost pressed against each other. “But I can assure you, I’m not using any magic on you.”_

_Alec had thought that Magnus was speaking about metaphorical magic and not actual magic._

“Did you really not use any magic on me?” Alec asked as he remembered their conversation at the party. Back then, he had thought Magnus was just teasing him but in hindsight the warlock had revealed a lot, even early on before Alec had found out, or rather been allowed the remember, just who Magnus Bane really was.

“I did not,” Magnus said and it sounded like the truth. “I only glamoured myself. I made it so that if someone saw me they would be unable to make the connection to my warlock status, if they should have that knowledge. Despite what you think of me, I don’t mess with people’s minds intrusively.”

Alec felt like he might be sick.

“So… you didn’t make me… I mean, you didn’t cause… you weren’t responsible for…”

He kept trying to pick up the sentence and have it make sense but he just kept breaking off unable to say the words out loud. Make him feel butterflies in his stomach? Didn’t cause shortness of breath? Weren’t responsible for Alec’s want to kiss him?

“I didn’t do anything to you,” Magnus said and shifted to stand directly opposite Alec again, facing him head on. “I only used my natural charm,” he said with a wink.

“You’re confusing me, Magnus. Why would you even approach me? Why didn’t you kill me the moment you realized who I was? And why did you keep flirting with me? You knew my name. You know what I do, who I am. I don’t believe that line about me being fun.”

“You should really not underestimate yourself, Alexander. I approached you because you are gorgeous and I wanted to talk to you. I didn’t kill you when I learned your name because I would never kill someone in cold blood. And I kept flirting with you because I wanted to and I thought maybe you’d see that we aren’t that different at all. I thought that maybe you’d be able to see the real me. You were watching so closely and I wanted you to understand.”

Alec hadn’t been prepared for the honesty or the sincerity Magnus voice. He sounded like he really meant it.

_Alec had wanted to kiss Magnus so badly. It was like an overcoming feeling in his chest. It felt like all the suppressed feelings were rushing to the surface and they would come spilling out any moment. Alec had decided to live a life of duty, to his family and to the cause. He had decided there would be no chance for romance at all in his life, so his sexuality didn’t matter either way._

_But then he was looking into Magnus’ eyes and feeling the strong hands on his back and he felt like he was being reminded of all the things he would never be able to have. But he had them here, for just a borrowed moment, and he wanted to indulge in the fantasy._

_It was a party where no one knew him and a dashing and flirtatious stranger had asked him to dance. As the song slowed down and started to fade out, Alec had stopped moving his feet but his hands held onto Magnus tighter and he had moved their faces closer together._

_“Alexander,” Magnus had whispered and Alec wondered if he would ever be able to hear someone say his full name without thinking of the way Magnus’ voice caressed his name._

_Alec was just about to close his eyes and move in when one of Magnus’ hands moved to Alec’s hip and took an iron grip. It distracted Alec enough to look up to meet Magnus’ eyes._

_“You don’t want to do that,” Magnus had said._

_“Yes, I do,” Alec had argued, even as he had felt the embarrassment start to wash over him. “Do you?”_

_Magnus’ eyes had darted down to Alec’s lips at his words and he had moved in a little closer but he didn’t attempt to close the distance._

_“I do but I also don’t want you do hate me, so I can’t allow myself to kiss you.”_

_“Why not?” Alec had asked, utterly confused._

He was still confused why Magnus hadn’t taken advantage of him when he had practically served himself up on a silver platter and smacked a sticker on his forehead saying: Please break my fragile heart with a kiss and then drive a knife through it.

“Why are you being so nice to me, Magnus? I don’t deserve that.”

“Everyone deserved kindness,” Magnus said and stepped away from the bars to walk to the back wall of the cell and lean against it. “Everyone of us. Lightwood or warlock.”

Alec wasn’t sure what to do. Magnus wasn’t what he had expected the first time around and he was acting even more unusual at the moment. If they had been able to get so much wrong about Magnus Bane, how much truth were there in those statements in his file? Did he truly deserve to pay for them with his life?

Many warlocks had been beheaded for lesser crimes, so objectively Alec knew that Magnus should be treated on the basis at that, even if some of the claims in the file might not be true like Magnus just told him.

A very dangerous thought was forming in the back of Alec’s head and he wasn’t sure what to do about it. He shouldn’t even indulge it. He should have pushed it far, far away but he couldn’t make himself when he watched how Magnus stood in his cell.

No, it was too insane. It would never work. It would probably result in the death of everyone in the facility and Alec couldn’t allow that. But maybe he could do something else instead.

He cleared his throat.

“Is there anyone you want notified?”

Magnus smiled like Alec had told a joke. “Notified that I have been executed? I’m sure they’ll figure that out soon enough.”

Alec groaned at Magnus’ response but mostly he felt frustrated with himself for being unable to find the words.

“No, that’s not what I meant. I just meant… if you want to get a message to someone, I might be able to help. You won’t be giving a chance to speak before… before it happens. But if you wanted to, I could help you if you have someone you want to tell something.”

“I don’t think I would want you near any of my loved ones. No offence,” Magnus said and tacked on the last bit while sporting a devilish smile. “You might make them follow in my footsteps.”

“There are message channels for downworlders. I could make sure the message got through without going near them. But forget it.”

“No, I think it’s quite noble that you want to help, although it’s utterly futile. And my people know that I care for them. Even with immortality, you never know when you’re going to take your last breath. I suppose mine will come soon enough. It’ll be okay. I don’t have any regrets. I don’t believe in regretting things that you can’t go back to change. Well, I do suppose there is one thing.”

“And what is that?” Alec asked as his curiosity was piqued.

“I regret turning down your kiss. No matter the circumstances,” Magnus said and looked up to lock eyes with Alec.

Alec felt like he couldn’t breathe and he knew it couldn’t be Magnus when he had magical binds on, so it was his own body reacting.

_“I cannot kiss you, Alexander Lightwood, because you would hate me and then you would hate yourself and despite what you think of my kind, I don’t want that.”_

_“Magnus, you’re confusing me again.”_

_Magnus had smiled and Alec had found it very beautiful, even amidst all his confusion._

_“I know. I suppose I should not keep up this charade any longer. Alexander, I am a warlock.”_

_As soon as the word left Magnus’ lips, it was like Alec regained a part of his brain that had been locked away. He went into alertness mode and separated himself from the warlock with several paces. He was a warlock and not just any warlock but Magnus Bane himself._

_Now, Alec could see it. Everyone had studied the faces of the most powerful warlocks and Alec knew it must have been magic interfering with his head since he hadn’t been able to recognize Bane on sight. He felt sick to his stomach at the idea that the warlock had played with him, strung him along and even made him feel attracted to him. It was a new low blow for their kind._

_“You’re so…”_

_Dead._

_It’s what Alec should have said. His voice came out rough but he didn’t sound furious, even though he felt it. He sounded betrayed and the right word died on his tongue because of it._

_“Cruel.”_

_Magnus seemed to recoil at that word, like it was the last word that he had expected Alec to say. In the next instance, Alec was readying for an attack but Magnus made a portal, right there in the middle of the dance floor and stepped through before Alec even had a chance to react._

_He stood frozen, as all the other partygoers seemed completely oblivious to what had just passed._

“Magnus, I don’t understand you.”

Magnus chuckled and paced back and forth in the cell a couple of times, playing with his fingers and acting as if he was turning his rings around but his fingers were still bare.

“I think that is fair because I do not understand you either, Alexander Lightwood. What do you want from me? Why are you here talking to me? What does this achieve?”

Alec wasn’t quite sure how to answer that.

Well, he knew part of the answer but he was increasingly feeling like that wasn’t what had compelled him to rush down here. It wasn’t enough to justify how Alec was feeling in the current moment. It could never have made him feel the tension and sorrow in his chest over the knowledge about what was about to happen to Magnus.

But it was the only answer he could provide.

“I wanted answers from you. I wanted to understand,” he told Magnus.

Magnus let out a low laughter, cruel and mocking at first before it fluttered into something lighter.

“A Lightwood who wishes to understand. Well, that would be a first. But that’s not all, is it?” Magnus said and walked back up to the bars and closed his hands around the bars as far apart as the magical binds would let him and he leaned his face as close to Alec as he could.

The image froze in Alec’s brain. It looked wrong.

Just like it had felt wrong when Alec had heard that Magnus had been captured.

“What d-do you m-mean?” Alec stuttered out.

“Be honest with me, Alexander. But more importantly, be honest with yourself. What did you come down here for, darling?”

Shit.

Shit, shit, shit.

How could Magnus just stand there and say that stuff? It wasn’t okay. None of this was okay. Alec shouldn’t be here. He should just walk away and be unbothered that Magnus would be killed for his existence and his crimes, however much truth there were to the accusations. But that was the problem. He did.

He cared.

About a warlock.

He felt like his world was ending and he had a sinking feeling that he would regret what he was about to do. But the idea of not doing it felt like it would be something he would regret as well, and his inaction would be something he would have to live with forever. Doing this would get him in trouble, it might even threaten his family but it still felt like the right option.

“I must be going insane,” Alec muttered to himself as he reached for the key clipped to his belt and found the key that would unlock the cell door.

Magnus seemed puzzled as he let go of the bars and stepped back until he was standing in the middle of the cell. Alec made quick work of the lock, even though the heavy click seemed to reverberate inside of Alec’s entire body.

He should not be doing this. It was too dangerous. He knew nothing about the man he was about to help. At least, he didn’t know enough to make this kind of judgment call on his own.

But Alec had always been good at reading people. It was one of his finest traits and the trouble with talking to Magnus was that he had open up for the opportunity to see him in a different light than the cold hard facts listed in his file. He had heard him laugh, seen him smile but most importantly he had heard him being honest and open.

As Alec swung open the door, he half expected Magnus to leap forward in attack but the warlock remained in the middle of the room, his body seemingly relaxed, though Alec could spot the tension running through him.

He took a trying step closer and reached out for Magnus’ lowered hands but he made no attempt at going the last bit until Magnus raised his bound hands. Alec keeps his eyes on the magical binds as he reached out for the knot that Magnus couldn’t influence in any way but that could easily be untied by someone else if they knew what they were doing.

He looked up and locked eyes with Magnus and this close his cat eyes were an incredible sight. They seemed to contain almost a rainbow of colors despite looking yellow when you were further away and they seemed like they almost shimmered. Alec could feel his breathing increase as he realized just how a dangerous situation he had gotten, or rather was getting, himself into.

_Alec must have stayed in the middle of the dance floor, glancing at the spot where a portal just opened up and one of the most notorious warlocks disappeared out of, for a very long time. He could see the other guests shooting him glances, as they had to maneuver to get around him but he was too preoccupied to care._

_Magnus Bane._

_He had danced with Magnus Bane, a High Warlock._

_It came rushing over him that he should have been dead. The moment his name had left his lips, Magnus should have struck him dead. All warlocks knew about the Lightwoods, as they were one of the oldest families tasked with hunting warlocks and other creatures with demonic blood. All warlocks should have had a feast killing a Lightwood._

_Yet Alec remained physically entirely unharmed after his encounter with one of the most powerful ones recorded in history. It didn’t make any sense. He should really be dead._

As Alec looked back down at Magnus’ hands and started undoing the magical binds, he briefly wondered if this would be how he died.

He technically deserved it for his stupidity. If one was lucky enough to survive a warlock encounter once, it wasn’t generally wise to practically serve yourself up on a plate again.

Alec would have to explain this to Jace and Izzy but he had a feeling that they would understand. Izzy would probably be proud of him and Jace would applaud going against the rules when Alec thought something was wrong. However, he wondered if they would do the same if they had been in his position.

It was an insane move. It could get him killed. It could get his family killed.

“Just…” Alec started saying when the binds were almost undone and one final and gentle tug would free Magnus’ magic. ”Don’t hurt my family. Prove us wrong.”

With that final statement hanging in the air, Alec pulled on the magical binds and they fell to the floor. Magnus seemed uncertain what to do for a moment but soon enough, Alec felt himself thrown with his back against the bars and lifted off the ground as Magnus moved his hands.

Alec couldn’t move and his heart was racing. He had made a colossal mistake. He had just let Magnus freaking Bane out of his magical binds and he had been wrong. Magnus was going to kill them all and it would be all Alec’s fault.

He felt like he couldn’t breathe and he didn’t know if it was the panic over having made the wrong call or if Magnus was magically making him suffocate but he felt like he might be dying.

But just as suddenly as the force had moved him, it let go and Alec tumbled on he knees as it stopped pinning him against the bars. He quickly scrambled to his feet and looked at Magnus standing very still in his spot.

“You continue to surprise me, Alexander Lightwood,” Magnus stated and he sounded just as causal as before. Alec wasn’t sure what to make of it.

“Yeah,” Alec huffed out and found that his breathing was ragged. “You started it.”

Magnus smiled widely and Alec noted that he still hadn’t glamoured his eyes back to the browns one from the party. It was unusual. Usually, warlocks would be quick to disguise their warlock marks around people like Alec.

“I won’t hurt the people upstairs, Alexander,” Magnus said to reassure him and stepped closer, which instantly made Alec tense. “Or you,” he added.

Alec couldn’t help lot out a huff of relief and he barely had time to consider how instantly he trusted Magnus’ word. He believed him without a second thought, which was highly unusual for Alec’s skeptic nature.

He still remained tense as Magnus walked closer but it wasn’t exactly out of fear anymore. He was still scared of what all this meant and how Magnus had turned everything he thought he knew upside down.

But right now, despite all the confusion he still felt, he knew one thing.

As wrong and dangerous as it had felt, this was the right call.

Magnus didn’t deserve to die and if Alec hadn’t interfered he would never have been able to forgive himself.

“You need to leave before someone else comes down here,” Alec said as Magnus stopped right in front of him, so damn close.

“Won’t they know it’s you who let me go?”

They would probably suspect him since he had gone down to talk to Magnus on his own but at the same time, Alec knew that his mother would never think that her devoted son would ever be capable of doing something like this. Izzy or Jace maybe but not Alec because he used to be such a stickler for the rules, even though it was evident that things could change.

“I’ll figure something out. Don’t worry about me,” Alec answered.

Magnus hummed and though Alec wasn’t sure it was possible, he stepped even closer. And then he did something Alec hadn’t expected at all; he reached out and took both of Alec’s hands in his own.

_As Alec had rushed out of the building and into the night’s air, he had left like Magnus had left traces on him all over. He tried to assure himself that it was just some magical influence that would wear off. Warlocks were master manipulators and Magnus was allegedly one of the best there was._

_It hadn’t been real, no matter how real it had felt._

_It couldn’t have been real because Alec’s world would crumble if it had been._

_Clearly, Magnus had just been toying with him and liked that he was messing with the heart of a Lightwood. But then, why hadn’t he let Alec kiss him? Why not wait until then to deliver the devastating blow that one of the supposedly best warlock hunters had been fooled enough to kiss a warlock?_

_It didn’t make any sense and Alec had a feeling that it wouldn’t for a very long time. Why had they met like this? Why was Alec still left with the feeling that what he had felt had been real? Would he ever be able to see Magnus again?_

Alec should have felt fear or disgust when Magnus took his hands but instead a sense of calm settled over him. This was an impossibly situation and it shouldn’t make any sense but it did.

Alec was freeing a highly dangerous warlock and instead of them attacking each other, they were holding hands. It shouldn’t be happening but it felt right.

“You know, in another world, we could have been something more to each other,” Magnus said.

Maybe it was the wisdom of having lived centuries but Alec couldn’t even let his mind dwell on that possibility. It would simply hurt too much to think there could have been circumstances where they had not been at odds with each other from the very beginning.

“I’ll settle for being the person who saves you in this one,” Alec replied. “It could never work for us here.”

“Oh, darling, I’m painfully aware. So I’ll settle for being the person who set you free to be who you truly are,” Magnus said with so much emotion in his voice and his unglamoured eyes staring right into Alec’s eyes.

He was a mesmerizing man. Alec hadn’t realized before but Magnus was right, he had set him free in ways that he hadn’t thought would have been possible. There would be hell to pay for letting Magnus escape, Alec knew that but at the moment he didn’t care.

Magnus would be safe. His magic might not be limitless but it was vast and he wouldn’t be caught again for a long time. Maybe, he would grow vulnerable in a century or so down the line but by then Alec would be dead and gone.

“You have to go,” Alec said though he was still gripping onto Magnus’ hands and he didn’t want to let go.

“Yes, but I have one more thing to do,” Magnus said and leaned so close to Alec. He was going in slowly, giving Alec plenty opportunity to step back to avoid the kiss but instead, Alec leaned in and crashed their lips together. The kiss was brief, hard and slightly awkward. On top of that, it hurt like hell because it felt like goodbye.

It was a goodbye kiss.

Alec had barely gotten to know the man who had turned his world upside down and he was losing him before he got a chance to do it. Yet, Magnus’ words felt burned into his mind. He would never be able to see warlocks the same way again. When he was in charge of his family’s duties one day, he would be able to make the call about how they dealt with the people but it wouldn’t happen for a long time until his parents were gone.

“I will always remember you, Alexander Lightwood,” Magnus promised as he stepped away and Alec felt their hands lose contact.

He could be imagining it but it felt like a brief jolt of electricity, just a pleasant tingle shot up his arms right before their hands let go. He bit into his lower lip as he watched Magnus move his hands and cause sparks to fly from them as a portal opened up in the wall. Alec didn’t even want to question how Magnus could seemingly just make a portal anywhere. Maybe he was just that powerful.

Magnus hesitated before he walked through the portal and looked back at Alec. The glowing purple light from the portal illuminated him and he had never quite looked so otherworldly as he did standing there with his cat eyes staring right into Alec’s soul.

“And I will never forget you, Magnus Bane,” Alec promised and watched with baited breath as Magnus stepped through the portal and disappeared from his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Reblog on tumblr](http://secretlywritingstories.tumblr.com/post/174827567940/spell-bound-by-you-malec-one-shot)
> 
>  
> 
> I hope you liked that! I have never written any of the characters from Shadowhunters before but I had this idea a while back and I wanted to try my hand at writing malec. I hope I did it somewhat justice? I would love to hear your feedback. I wanted to play around a bit with the formatting of the writing, which is why flashbacks occur continuously through the story, essentially telling you two stories at once. I hope it was not confusing. My intention was for the two stories to complement each other. I also just like trying out new ways of telling a story.
> 
> You can find more of my writing on my profile or follow me on tumblr at @secretlywritingstories if you feel like it. Either way, thank you for reading my story!


	2. Spell Bound By You (Again)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It had been seven years since Alexander Lightwood and let Magnus Bane go. They had agreed that the time wasn't right for them but they had also promised never to forget each other. Once their roles get flipped around and Alexander is the one in restraints after being captured by the warlocks, the two of them will be forced to face how they feel about each other again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did it, guys! The sequel that some of you wanted. I hope you like it! Cursive are flashbacks but they are not chronological like the past chapter in Alec' point of view. Enjoy!

“Magnus,” Catarina called, as she opened Magnus’ door and strolled into his loft. It wasn’t unusual and Magnus just quickly glanced up from where he was lounging on his couch while reading up on a potion recipe for a client that he would have to make later.

He was ready to just go back to reading but he caught the glint in his old friend’s eyes and he promptly closed the old book in his hands.

Catarina looked like a cat that had caught a mouse.

Something had happened to make her look so damn smug. Magnus took his time to put the book aside and get to his feet. She was standing in the middle of his living space with her grin, which was growing wider by the second.

Now that Magnus was really looking at her, he noticed her disheveled hair, torn sleeves and dried blood on her hands and the side of her face. It wasn’t really a cause for concern because she looked perfectly fine and if any of the blood had come from wounds of her own then she had probably just healed them.

“What did you do?” Magnus asked with a swing of his hand that made his bracelets clink together. “You look awfully happy for a normal Monday afternoon.”

“It’s not just a normal day, Magnus. You’re not going to believe this. I caught the eldest of the Lightwood children,” Catarina said proudly.

Magnus froze in his step completely. The eldest Lightwood child. Alexander.

It had been seven years since Maryse Lightwood and her minions had caught Magnus. It was the day he could easily have lost his life if not for Alexander’s interference. He had been destined to unfair execution.

He would have died.

It hadn’t been the first time that Magnus had been close to death. He had been alive for too many years and he had made too many enemies not to have the occasional brush with death.

But this was still his most recent one and it was the only time that he hadn’t managed to save himself or one of his own kind had been able to aid and save him.

A Lightwood had saved him.

Magnus hadn’t even asked him to do it. He hadn’t tried to play on the brief encounter they had shared just a month prior to Magnus’ capture. He had just been intrigued when Alexander appeared outside of his cell.

He was a fascinating man. Magnus could remember the first time he had seen him.

_Alexander had been lingering by the bar for the whole first hour of Magnus’ party. Whenever someone tried to go near him or just strike up light conversation when they were getting a drink, he had looked uncomfortable and irritated._

_He was wearing a serious frown._

_Magnus should have been paying attention to his actual guests and not this person who clearly did not belong here. Magnus knew whom he had invited, even with over a hundred guests. Tall, brooding and handsome had not been on the list. And determining by the way the man was decidedly here by himself he wasn’t anyone’s plus one either._

_Magnus had been intrigued. The man was gorgeous and Magnus had always loved a challenge._

_He hadn’t known just how big of a challenge he would turn out to be. How utterly impossible it would be for them to ever be anything to each other. The realization would come later and it would hurt._

_Magnus excused himself from the group of people talking to him and trying to hold his attention and he approached the brooding man with two wine glasses in hand. There was a chance the man was straight and he would have none of Magnus’ flirting but that was part of the game and Magnus would gracefully bow out if that had been the case._

“How did you find him?” Magnus asked Catarina. “And more importantly how did you catch him?”

Catarina clicked her tongue. “He was easy to capture. Child’s play for someone like me.”

Magnus simply raised an eyebrow at her claim to show his disbelief. She was lying.

Alexander was not easy to surprise and certainly not capture. Magnus had only met him properly two times before but in the past seven years since Alexander had set him free from the magical binds, Magnus had kept a keen eye on the man.

“One would think that you’d stop exaggerating when you know I can always tell when you’re lying,” Magnus said and turned his back to approach his drinks table and pour himself one. He had a feeling that he would need alcohol for this conversation.

He certainly could use a little liquid courage at the prospect of having to face Alexander. He had never shared the specifics of how he had gotten away from the Lightwoods. He knew that word of it would travel fast and eventually it would reach back to the Lightwoods themselves.

Magnus hadn’t wanted to expose Alexander. He felt like he had owed him the discretion at the least.

Did he owe him more?

“You’re no fun,” Catarina said and threw herself onto the couch and stretched out. “And I must say you’re not exactly dancing with joy like I thought you would, Magnus. You did hear me that I got the Lightwood heir, correct?”

“I heard you,” Magnus said and took a sip of his whisky. “I might be old but I’m not deaf yet.”

“Magnus, what is going on with you?” Catarina asked him.

“Nothing, my dear,” Magnus replied but it sounded like a lie to even himself.

He couldn’t possibly explain to her why he was feeling so conflicted about the possibility Alexander’s capture. It would reveal all too much and Catarina might be one of his oldest friends but it wasn’t only his story to tell.

“If you think that you are the only one who can spot a liar then you’re gravely mistaken, old friend. But I will concede that he was perhaps not so easy to capture. His bow and arrow is a force to be reckoned with. He was out with a few of his buddies chasing down Shax demons. I couldn’t resist grabbing him.”

Magnus hummed thoughtfully.

“Speak your mind, Magnus.”

“Do you really think it was a wise move, Catarina? Over the past few years, we have had the least amount of trouble with the Lightwoods for decades. It has been somewhat… peaceful, dare I say. Kidnapping Alexander will only attract attention to us anew.”

“It might have been quiet but you as well as I know that it might just be calm before the storm. We are still being hunted, Magnus. The Lightwoods and families like them still deem it their divine purpose to rid the world of anyone with demonic blood. Have you forgotten about Ragnor?”

“Don’t you dare accuse me of that!” Magnus shouted and swirled around to face her. “I know what they did. I will never forget him.”

“Good. So I thought it was only fair that you got a crack on one of theirs. And didn’t they also briefly capture you like a decade ago? Think of it as payback.”

_Magnus had been stupid and preoccupied with getting the warlock children safely out of there. He had foolishly thought that he had taken out any remaining enemies with force but not deadly force. Magnus wasn’t afraid to strike to kill but he only did it when the situation called for it._

_As someone with immortality, it was already too easy to disregard human life spans as just a small and insignificant moment in history. However, if you started to think like that and just take life whenever you saw fit, you would eventually lose your humanity._

_Magnus did not want to live without the human part of him._

_It was the human part of him who went to protect and save the warlock children. It was the human part of him that had leapt in front of a throw of magic binds to ensure that all the children would get away safely. It was his human part that had talked and danced with Alexander at the party._

_He had not expected to see him again. He had been furious at himself for getting caught but just minutes later Alexander had come to see him in his cell. Magnus had thought that he might want to gloat._

_Magnus had disappeared into a portal at the party and given Alexander no option to capture or kill him. Now he was restrained and at his mercy. But Alexander hadn’t been cruel and he didn’t seem like he enjoyed the power he held one bit. He had seemed ashamed of it._

_He had looked so lost._

_It had made Magnus’ heart hurt a little for the young man in front of him who was repressing his sexuality, following orders blindly and being ashamed of what he wanted._

Magnus kept quiet. He didn’t want to think of this as payback. And if Catarina had known what had gone down between them, she would never phrase it like that. Alexander had let him go.

Without demanding anything.

He had just been doing it out of the kindness of his heart or maybe it was the sense for justice and fairness that had done it.

They had not spent a lot of time together the two times that they had met but it had still been enough for Magnus to get a sense of Alexander and his moral compass. He wore his emotions on his face and he had been as easy to read for Magnus as an open book.

Magnus would sometimes wonder what might have happened if the two of them hadn’t met before Magnus had been captured. He had the feeling that Alexander would just have written him off to be exactly what his file said.

Alexander had called Magnus a murderer.

But he had listened to reason and he had actually given Magnus a chance to explain himself. He never thought he would see that in a Lightwood and Magnus thought it might be because they had met before and Magnus hadn’t tried to kill him or even hurt him in any way.

He could have done it if he wanted to. He could even justify it to his warlock family.

The Lightwoods had been responsible for Ragnor Fell’s death and Magnus would be owed revenge and for many years he had craved it but he hadn’t been thinking about that when Alexander had stood in front of him.

“Magnus?” Catarina asked. “Are you going question him? Or should I?”

“No, I’ll do it,” Magnus said quickly.

He loved Catarina and she was his oldest friend but he did not trust her to question Alexander.

“We need to decide what to do with him. Should we ask the others?” she said and she was watching him carefully, so he ensured that she couldn’t find a crack in his armor.

“I don’t think that will be necessary. I’m the High Warlock. It will ultimately be my call,” Magnus said and downed the rest of his drink.

“Magnus, are you sure you’re okay? You’re acting peculiar, even for you. Has it something to do with the kid?”

Alexander would be almost 30 by now but in the long scheme of immortality, Magnus knew he would very much still seem like a kid to Catarina. Magnus should have felt the same but he still recalled how world wise Alexander had been in his early twenties.

“No, I can handle him. You know me.”

“I do and I know that face, Magnus. You are feeling sentimental.”

_When Alec had taken off the magical binds, Magnus’ magic had reacted on its own accord. After being suppressed and Magnus trying to break out of the stupid restraints, it clicked on and slammed Alexander back against the bars of the cell._

_Magnus hadn’t meant to do it and he was so surprised that he didn’t know what to do for the first few seconds. He saw Alexander’s terror and it made him almost feel it on his own body. It was horrible. He hated that families like the Lightwoods taught their young children to fear the ones different from them._

_They taught them to hunt and kill those that were different._

_“You continue to surprise me, Alexander Lightwood,” Magnus had told him after he had regained his calm and let him down._

_A closeted gay eldest son who went on extra missions to find warlocks but then decided to go against all the rules he had been told his whole life. Alexander was something special. Magnus had sensed it then already but he knew that he could never do anything about it._

_The one kiss had been a final indulgence._

_They were too different and it would never be able to work with them. So Magnus let the fantasy of what might have been live in his head but nowhere else._

_The real Alexander Lightwood would be running around out there but he wasn’t Magnus’ to pursue. It had taken more self-restraint than he was willing to admit to make the portal and leave that kid behind in the cell._

_Alexander had unlocked something in Magnus that had been dormant for a very long time._

Magnus had thought that he would never get another chance to speak to Alexander again. Magnus wasn’t easy to capture and he never fell for the same trick twice. He hadn’t expected that Alexander might be the one captured and restrained by one of his own.

He would never have been able to do anything like that to the Lightwood. He would have been too scared of hurting him.

“Is he okay? Did he get injured as you captured him?” he asked Catarina.

“Nothing too bad. I might have messed up his leg a little but he’s a big boy. Magnus, what is it about that Lightwood? You have to tell me. You know I will just keep asking.”

Magnus clicked his fingers and his coat magically appeared around his shoulder.

“I take it you are storing him in the warehouse?”

“Magnus, you have to talk to me about this. You don’t keep secrets from me. What is going on?”

“It’s private business, Catarina. And it’s fine. I will see you later,” he said and made a portal.

“Magnus Bane, I swear I will follow you there if you don’t tell me what’s going on. You aren’t thinking straight and-”

“I never am,” Magnus interrupted with a wink and let the portal solidify for the moment.

“I’m being serious!” Catarina exclaimed. “Those Lightwoods are dangerous if you’re not in your right mind.”

Magnus moved his hand to his chin and he let contemplation paint his face, just to mollify Catarina a little. “I am fine. And you will let me do this alone. I will see you later.”

With that nod of farewell, Magnus stepped through the portal to the old warehouse where a lot of unofficial warlock business went down. Sometimes it had been a Downworlder club. Other times it had housed warlock orphans temporarily. On occasion supplies would come through but for now it was empty except for a man kneeling with eyes downcast in the middle of the massive open space.

Magnus quickly put up wards around the warehouse to ensure that no one would be getting inside with Alexander here. A lot of Downworlders would love to rip out the throat of a Lightwood.

Alexander seemed to sense the surge of magic and he looked up to see Magnus stand almost in front of him.

Magnus felt as if the breath got knocked right out of him. Alexander’s body had changed and aged, even if Magnus would argue that he had gotten even more attractive, but his eyes were the same. The hazel eyes staring at him now were the same eyes that had haunted him months after their second encounter.

_Magnus had pushed himself to make and step through the portal and away from Alexander. It had been difficult considering he knew that he was leaving the young Lightwood boy to deal with the consequences of aiding the escape of one of their biggest targets._

_It was a title the Magnus had worn almost proudly in the past because it spoke volumes of his power and influence but after moment with Alexander, he felt almost sick with the notion that he was on the top of the Lightwoods’ hit list._

_Alexander was obliged to hunt him, if he wanted to stay with his family._

_It would have been a nice fantasy to imagine that things could change but Magnus had been alive for too long to believe that the Lightwoods as a whole would change their tune._

_Yet, Magnus kept dreaming of Alexander’s hazel eyes. He would see them whenever he closed his eyes the first day and if he didn’t know that Alexander hadn’t been capable of magic, he might have suspected that he had been enchanted._

_Maybe Alexander’s eyes were just too beautiful for him. It had been the first thing he had noticed when he had walked up to talk to the antisocial stranger lingering by the bar at his party._

_Eyes might not exactly be the windows to the soul but Alexander always wore his heart on his sleeve, the rebellion in his shoulders and the sadness in his eyes._

Alexander did not look sad now. He looked angry.

His soulful hazel eyes were staring at Magnus, one of them half concealed from the swelling in his face. His clothes were slightly torn and stained with blood. Magnus half wanted to turn back and scold Catarina for inflicting hurt upon Alexander but he couldn’t do that.

Alexander was – as much as Magnus hated to admit it – the enemy.

They had always been enemies and understandably he had put up a fight when Catarina had tried to capture him. He couldn’t blame either of them for the injuries. It was simply the way it had to be but it still made Magnus’ chest ache a little.

They were looking at each other, eyes locked, when Alexander’s gaze softened a little. The anger melted away, at least a little bit, even if he looked just as guarded.

“Magnus Bane.”

“Alexander Lightwood.”

“I suppose it’s fair,” Alexander commented. “We captured you seven years ago and now I’m the one in chains. Or rather whatever invisible restraints that your friend put on me.”

Alexander tried his best to sound simply angry but Magnus picked up on the undercurrent of fear that he undoubtedly tried to hide behind the anger.

Magnus couldn’t blame him. He had every right to be afraid.

However, Magnus was getting a little pissed off at all the things he could understand but still didn’t agree with. He surveyed Alexander’s body, which again was unfairly attractive, and he could see the way his muscles had been forced to stay still against his will.

He had lost control of his own body.

That was too horrible. For all that he was, Alexander did not deserve that.

Magnus snapped his fingers and lifted Catarina’s spell without any trouble. He knew how she worked and it took no effort for him to undo her spellwork.

Alexander gained back feeling in his limbs and as soon as he did, he tried to spring to his legs. It didn’t quite work, as the left one almost collapsed under him. He managed to pull it to himself and stand up somewhat straight.

The anger had vanished completely now. The fear was still there but now it was overshadowed by surprise.

“Why did you do that?”

Magnus simply shrugged. “Quid pro quo.”

Alexander was staring at him like he had grown a second head and Magnus subtly checked if his cat eyes were out but they were still glamoured.

“You confuse me.”

“Then at least some things haven’t changed,” Magnus said with a little smile as he strolled over to the table where Alexander’s weapons had been laid out. Catarina had wisely separated him from them.

Four difference knives in differing sizes.

A couple of grenades.

A set of brass knuckles.

Five small canisters with teargas.

But most importantly, his bow and his quiver holding over a dozen arrows.

Magnus felt like Alexander had been laid bare in front of him but it wasn’t like when he had imagined it in his dreams.

_Dreams had always been a big part of Magnus’ life. Unless he took anything to suppress them, he would always have dreams. Most of them would be nightmares._

_He would be reliving the worst parts of his life._

_But some of them were nice too. Sexy dreams were his favorite because they were peaceful and void of destruction._

_Until he started dreaming about the pretty Lightwood boy because Alexander was all types of forbidden fruit. He was unattainable for Magnus but his subconscious mind didn’t seem to have those restrictions._

_It was nice, even if the knowledge that it could only be in dreams would sting a little. But soon enough those dreams turned into nightmares too and just as they would be getting busy, Alexander would produce a knife from seemingly nowhere to try to slit Magnus’ throat._

Magnus picked up the smallest of the knives.

It was positively tiny but Magnus could see just by looking at it that it was sharp. It would cut through all sorts of things.

“Magnus?”

Alexander’s voice pulled his focus back and Magnus saw the fear in his eyes as he watched a powerful warlock turning his knife. Magnus could send it flying straight into Alexander’s heart and end this.

He didn’t want to.

“I’m not going to hurt you, Alexander. In fact, let me take care of that,” he said and gestured at Alexander’s whole body. Magnus took two strides towards him before he noticed how tensely Alexander was holding himself.

“Do you not want me to?”

“What do you mean?” Alexander spat out and he sounded confused and angry again.

“Your injuries, of course,” Magnus said like it was the most obvious answer in the world. “I can have them healed up in seconds.”

“Why would you do that, Magnus? Why did you let me out of the restraints? Why are you being so…”

“Human?”

“I was going to say nice, but sure. You don’t owe me anything. We’re enemies.”

Magnus started approaching Alexander, who remained rooted and swaying slightly with his wounded leg, but he went slower this time.

“I told you before, Alexander. We aren’t coldblooded murderers.”

“I know that.”

Magnus stopped in his tracks and took time to search Alexander’s face because the words had been spoken with complete sincerity.

“What?” Magnus uttered softly because he didn’t know what else to say.

“I know your kind isn’t what I have been taught you are. I have kept an eye on how you have behaved in the past seven years. I know you’re just trying to live your life, Magnus.”

Magnus didn’t know what to say to that. He felt utterly speechless.

“Magnus, are you okay?” Alexander asked with concern in his voice.

Magnus couldn’t take it anymore. He threw his head back and just laughed. He laughed so much that he could feel tears forming in the corners of his eyes and it was probably smudging his mascara but he didn’t care. This was unbelievable.

“I’m perfectly fine, Alexander. I just didn’t expect you to… I don’t know what I expected frankly. You will continue to surprise me, won’t you?”

At that little quip, Magnus caught how Alexander’s lip twitched upwards and he looked so young and vulnerable in that moment. His face was still bruised and swollen though. Magnus had to do something about that.

“Let me fix your injuries, please?” Magnus asked.

Alexander tried to straighten up to his full height but his injured leg prevented him from doing so. Still he was taller than Magnus and as Magnus walked closer he tilted his head back slightly to meet Alexander’s eyes.

For a beat, Magnus thought Alexander might refuse the help but then his expression softened.

“Will it hurt?” he asked.

“It won’t hurt. You might just feel a tingling sensation from my magic.”

“Magnus?” Alexander said as Magnus moved his hands closer.

“Yes?”

“What does your magic feel like?”

“This,” Magnus said and place his hand on Alexander’s shoulder even if he didn’t need the physical contact to heal the injuries. He allowed himself this small comfort.

_When Magnus had asked Alexander to dance, he had thought the Lightwood would refuse. He had been prepared to leave him alone and get back to the party if he did so. But it had just taken a little verbal push and Alexander had put his hand in Magnus’._

_Magnus always felt his magic brimming under his skin. It was as much a part of him as feeling his lungs expand and taking in oxygen._

_Not all other people responded well to feeling magic on their skin._

_Alexander was one of the ones who did._

_He had started smiling the moment they had started dancing. He was practically excluding happiness. Magnus had been charmed by it, even if he knew the last name his dancing partner. It would never be able to work for them but with the way that Alexander smiled at him, Magnus almost wanted to throw caution to the wind._

Magnus let his magic sweep out and knit Alexander’s skin together. They stood face to face, sharing the same air and Alexander’s eyes did not leave Magnus’ for a second. Magnus watched how the swelling in his face went down, the bruising disappeared and Alexander was able to stand properly on his leg.

Even as he finished, Magnus didn’t want to pull his hand back. He recalled how they had danced together, now so many years ago. He hadn’t wanted to stop the fun back then either.

But he had been forced to when Alexander had wanted to kiss him.

He hadn’t been able to deceive and take advantage of the young Lightwood like that. It wouldn’t have been fair. And Magnus truly hadn’t wanted Alexander to hate him.

“Thank you,” Alexander said.

“My pleasure.”

Magnus let the touch and intimate moment linger for just a little longer before he pulled away.

As he walked away, he turned his back to Alexander, which he objectively shouldn’t have done now that he was healed and fully capable of doing damage if he wanted to. But Magnus had the feeling that Alexander wanted to hurt him as little as Magnus wanted to hurt Alexander.

“How did Catarina capture you?” Magnus asked as he walked back over to the table with the weapons to inspect them again. He took the bow in his hand and ran his hand over the handle.

“We were tracking a Shax demon and I got separated from the group. I didn’t find it but I did run into Catarina Loss. Her name is right next to yours on… you know.”

“The big warlock hit list?” Magnus said with no humor at all.

“Yes,” Alexander said awkwardly.

“Did you try to kill her?”

“What? No, of course I didn’t. I just told her that she shouldn’t be here. I think she misunderstood my warning.”

Magnus let out a dry laugh. Catarina would have heard that and been offended. She probably thought that Alexander had meant that her kind wasn’t allowed to be here in general. It was an easy mistake to make when so much bad blood ran between the warlocks and the Lightwoods.

“Why a bow?” Magnus asked as he turned over the bow in his hands once more. “I always wondered why that was your weapon of choice.”

Alexander shrugged and walked a little closer to Magnus now without the limp in his step.

“I never had flair for sword fighting, much to my father’s dismay. But with the bow, I can survey a whole area and attack from far away, which is preferable to getting up close and personal. I also just had a natural flair for it.”

Magnus had seen Alexander in action with his bow a few years ago.

_Magnus had been going to the Hotel Dumont where the vampires resided to finish some business with Raphael. He hadn’t expected to run into a fight just a few blocks over._

_From the looks of it, a newly turned vampire had attacked and killed someone and the Lightwoods had swept in like they did. Magnus had lingered in the shadows because he had no interest in getting the whole Lightwood clan on his tail._

_But he had seen Alexander in action. Perched on one of the rooftops he provided aerial cover for his people on the ground whenever one of the other vampires would rush forward to defend their own._

_Alexander had been completely in his element with the bow in hand. He had fired with a steady hand and a precise eye._

_But at first, Magnus had actually thought that he was a bad shot because he kept just missing the vampires running forward, injuring them but not killing them._

_He did it again and again._

_Always_ just _missing._

_One doesn’t almost miss every single time. If you have such a great control of where you aim, you could hit the target if you wanted to. Alexander was choosing not to be lethal._

_In the end, the Lightwoods had to retreat but Alexander stayed on the rooftop until everyone was away safely. Magnus had wanted to walk up to him to talk to him._

_He had stayed hidden in the shadows the entire time the fighting had been going on. He hadn’t been able to take his eyes off of Alexander for even one moment. But then Alexander finally swung the bow around on his back and made to leave._

_Magnus wasn’t sure if he would be welcomed with an arrow in the gut or a smile, so he decided it was a bad idea to approach Alexander._

_As much as he wanted to see him and to talk to him again, it wasn’t fair to waltz into Alexander’s life like that. They had agreed on never forgetting each other last time they parted. That would have to be enough._

“I bet,” Magnus said and handed the bow back to him.

“Magnus, am I free to go?”

“Huh?” Magnus mumbled because he had been distracted and caught up in his memories but then Alexander’s question registered. “Yes. Why wouldn’t you be?”

“Because we are enemies, Magnus. And your warlock friend captured me.”

“You keep saying that world, Alexander. I’m not sure if you know what it means. Do enemies try to use non-lethal tactics when they don’t have to? Do enemies try to stay out of each other’s business and try to exist peacefully next to each other? Do enemies let the other go from capture no matter the consequences?”

“That doesn’t change things.”

“Oh, but it does, Alexander. You might still go on missions for your family but you are not the same man that I met seven years ago. The warlocks have dealt less with the Lightwoods for the past handful of years than ever before. You let me go when your mother had captured me without me ever asking you for anything.”

“That’s different,” Alexander said and his whole face was pinched in pain.

“Tell me why you let me go?”

“Magnus, please-“

“Tell me, Alexander.”

Alexander’s jaw was clenched to tightly that it looked painful. He let out an angry breath through his nose and reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose.

“It was the right thing to do. You did not deserve to die.”

“And neither do you, so you’re free to go,” Magnus said.

“Your friend, Catarina, said that she wanted to torture me for information, Magnus.”

“Oh, she’s just being dramatic. I’m not going to hurt you, Alexander. Don’t you know that by now? How many chances had I had to kill you if I wanted? You have given me plenty opportunities over the years. I don’t want you to be hurt.”

Silence fell between the two of them. It hung heavy with unspoken words. Alexander adjusted the bow on his back. Magnus spun around the rings on his fingers.

“I want things to be different, Magnus.”

“You and me both, Alexander.”

_Magnus would sometimes wonder if he had been alive for too long. Just because he possessed immortality did not mean that he could not be killed. Maybe he was cheating the cycle of life by just living on for hundreds of years._

_He had seen the world around him change and grow but the prejudice between species and races had remained vaguely the same. His sexuality was more accepted now than it had ever been, as was his dark skin but there would still be so many people that would hate him because of who he was._

_And families like the Lightwoods had always despised warlocks and he hadn’t been sure if that detail was ever going to change._

_Alexander Lightwood had almost given him hope that things could change._

_It was such a selfless thing to release Magnus from the magical binds._

_It could have ended in disaster but Alexander had trusted him not to hurt anyone._

_He had trusted Magnus to behave like a decent human being. It was more than the Lightwoods had ever thought of him._

“I will be taking over as head of the family next year,” Alexander said. “I want things to be different, Magnus. I want to make them different. I want alliances with the warlocks and other Downworlders instead of us pursuing you unjustly.”

Magnus turned around to face Alexander head on.

“But you still think that families like yours are necessary?”

“Yes,” he replied. “I do. But not in the way we have worked before. It shouldn’t be us hunting you down because we are afraid of what you can do. It’s not fair that you are being hunted because of the circumstances of your birth or a bite. We should seek to help you instead of chase you.”

Magnus suddenly wished he had another drink before he left. He could just make one appear with magic but he wasn’t sure how Alexander would react to that.

“It all sounds very wonderful, Alexander. But it also sounds like a fairytale. Do you really think things could change so radially?”

“Yes, I do.”

Magnus might have deemed it naïve if it wasn’t for the clear fire burning in Alexander’s eyes.

“I want to believe you, Alexander, but I have been around for too long. Change doesn’t happen with the snap of your fingers, even my magical ones, or because you will be put in charge.”

“I know it won’t be easy and I know that I will still face opposition even from my own family, if I told them what I am telling you now. But we are not all like that. My sister Izzy has always found our hunting distasteful and my adoptive brother Jace has always been questioning our parents’ authority. You and I are an example of it too. You let me go. You healed me. We _are_ enemies, Magnus, right now but we don’t have to be. Not forever. Not if we change it.”

“We are just two people.”

“And it will just be a gradual change, Magnus. I wasn’t sure it could be a reality. I have doubted it over the years, even as I have planted false information to lead the raids and missions away from Downworlder homes. But then I was captured and I was worried of what would happen to me but you showed up and immediately let me go, Magnus. Don’t you see?”

“We have history, Alexander.”

“You would do it, even if we didn’t know each other. You wouldn’t have hurt me.”

Magnus couldn’t argue with that one, even if he knew that he never would have let a stranger out this easily. Alexander had a way of getting under his skin. He felt trustworthy, which was dangerous to someone like Magnus.

“But would you have let me out of the magical binds if we hadn’t met beforehand?”

Alexander clenched his jaw and balled his hands into fists. Despite the show of aggression, Magnus wasn’t scared of him one bit.

“I probably wouldn’t have. I was prejudiced and I blindly trusted authority. But you are different, Magnus. You say you’ve been around for a long time and you’re right. You talk of it as if that makes you skeptical but it also makes you wise. You have seen civilizations rise and fall. I can’t change things alone, but maybe, just maybe, we can do it together if you help me.”

Magnus wasn’t sure what to respond. He wanted to believe Alexander. He wanted to believe that other Lightwoods and their likes could actually change their mind and work with Downworlders as opposed to hunting them. He wanted to believe that the change could be the same like how society around him had grown to be more accepting about sexuality and race.

But would the hateful generations die out? Could it be possible or would hatred always find a way to hold on?

“Take my hand,” Magnus said and extended his right hand towards Alexander.

He had expected hesitation but Alexander put his hand right in Magnus’ without any whatsoever.

He let his magic flow to his palm and concentrate there. He wanted to see if Alexander would pull away as the small electric shocks intensified. He didn’t. Instead, he moved Magnus’ hand up in front of their faces and put both his hands around Magnus’ one hand and squeezed tightly.

“Magic doesn’t scare me. You don’t scare me, Magnus.”

“I did,” Magnus pointed out. “When I first appeared here, you were scared. Don’t try to deny it.”

Alexander shook his head. “I was scared but not of you, Magnus. I was scared to be confronted with everything that you represent and mean to me. Without you, I would probably never have been able to admit to myself that I am gay; I would have continued to hunt and hurt innocent people and I would have been living a poorer life. For better or for worse, you opened my eyes that day. You set me free. I couldn’t go back. And seeing you again now, it just reminded me of how I still can’t.”

_Magnus had been talking to Alexander in the cell for about ten minutes when Magnus realized, truly realized, that this kid had no evil intentions at all. He hadn’t been sure at the party, which was the reason that he had made a portal to get the hell out of there before he did something stupid._

_Well, more stupid than confessing his true identity to the man who was supposed to hunt him._

_When Alexander had asked if he would want anyone notified upon his death, things had started to switch. Magnus had made a joke out of it but he had been touched by the notion._

_It was a nice thing to do. Alexander had tried to make a horrible situation better. Magnus had appreciated the sentiment._

_Later, when Magnus was unbound and leaving, he had told Alexander that he would have to settle for being the person who set him free. He had tried to make himself happy with that. It was a big thing._

Being the person who set Alexander free and opened his eyes wouldn’t be enough anymore. It couldn’t be.

When Magnus had promised to always remember Alexander Lightwood, he had meant it but he hadn’t truly understood the implications of his words. He had filed Alexander as the first Lightwood who had gone against the old code that told them to hate Downworlders.

That in itself was a big feat but clearly Magnus hadn’t been able to see Alexander’s true potential yet.

He saw it now, as the man stood in front of him with his hands clasped around Magnus’ hand, which was burning with magic at this point. Alexander didn’t flinch and he didn’t look away.

He was completely serious about wanting his family to become Magnus’ allies.

It didn’t feel real.

Magnus moved his free hand up to cup Alexander’s face just to feel that he was actually real. His skin was pale and smooth under Magnus’ weathered hand. Alexander’s eyes widened as he felt the light touch but he didn’t make any move to retreat.

Instead, he titled his head ever so slightly into Magnus touch and closed his eyes. The softest sigh left his lips and the tension drained out of Alexander’s shoulders.

It was the magic going more into his system because Magnus’ heart was running away with him faster than he could restrain it.

Alexander had always been physically beautiful.

It was the thing that had attracted Magnus in the first place and he wasn’t ashamed to admit that.

But he saw Alexander in a completely different and yet stunningly beautiful light now.

He was beautiful because of the fire in his eyes. He was beautiful because of his unwavering compassion. He was beautiful because he was ready and willing to stand up against his own to do what he thought was right.

In that moment, Magnus wasn’t sure if he had ever seen a more beautiful being in all his years.

“Can I please kiss you?” Magnus whispered.

Alexander didn’t respond but he let go of Magnus’ hands and instead grabbed a tight hold of the labels of Magnus’ suit and pressed their mouths together.

_Their first kiss had hurt._

_Not physically._

_It had hurt in Magnus’ heart._

_He had wanted to kiss Alexander at the party and it had taken all his self-restraint not to let it happen. And now he was finally allowing himself to kiss Alexander but only because he was leaving._

_The kiss was over almost as soon as it begun and yet Magnus would be able to remember the feel of Alexander’s lips on his for the months that followed. He had been the one to pull away because he wasn’t sure if Alexander would be able to do it and they couldn’t stay there._

_In the little cell all by themselves, it was almost enough to make Magnus feel like it could work out. It if had just been the two of them and the whole world hadn’t been against them, then many something could have happened._

_Something real._

_Instead, they had to share a quick goodbye kiss._

_It had to be because they were too different._

_The time wasn’t right for them. Magnus was convinced that it would never be right for them._

Their second kiss did not hurt.

They moved in slower and took their time. The first caress was enough to make Magnus’ legs feel like jelly and he wondered if he would have literally swooned if Alexander weren’t keeping a hold of his jacket.

It was tentative and full of promise.

Alexander pulled back for the smallest moment and Magnus’ eyes fluttered open just in time to see the big smile on Alexander’s face and the way that his eyes gleamed before he was moving in to reconnect their lips again.

Magnus’ own lips turned upwards into a smile as the kiss continued. He could feel that Alexander was smiling too.

One kiss turned into two and then three and Magnus lost count but it didn’t matter because he was kissing the most beautiful being he might have ever laid eyes on and the kisses were soft and hopeful and it made the uncertain feeling in Magnus’ stomach settle.

“Still surprising me,” Magnus whispered between kisses.

“Still confusing me,” Alexander quipped back and kissed him a little harder. “But I love it.”

Eventually they ended up sitting side by side on top of the table, Alexander’s weapons shoved down unceremoniously. Magnus’ hands had ended up around Alexander’s waist and his hands around Magnus’ neck.

“Do you believe me now?” Alexander asked.

“About changing generations of hatred and becoming allies?”

“ _Magnus,”_ Alexander groaned and Magnus wanted to hear him call his name in a very different fashion but now wasn’t the time for that.

But maybe it wasn’t so unlikely that it could happen as Magnus had believed before. It might not be impossible.

The time hadn’t been right for them.

They had both known that. They had agreed upon it.

But perhaps, they could change the time to fit them instead.

“I don’t know, my dear. It’s quite a feat,” he said and he noticed how the air seemed to seep out of Alexander. “However, I will say that I don’t think it as impossibly any more. If the two of us can get along this well, maybe there are still hope for our people.”

The smile was back in Alexander’s eyes and on his lips and Magnus could already feel that he would be completely enamored with this boy if he let him fall.

“I wasn’t sure, Magnus. I wasn’t sure before I saw you again but it isn’t that crazy, is it? If the High Warlock of Brooklyn and the Head of the Lightwood Family is working together?”

Magnus let the laughter bubble up his throat but he also leaned in and pulled Alexander close enough to put his head on his shoulder.

“It’s absolutely crazy. Bonkers. Insane. Mad. Nuts. _But_ ,” Magnus interrupted himself before Alexander could, “it might be possible and that’s what matters.”

Alexander leaned closer to Magnus’ personal space.

“I said I would never forget you, Magnus. And I didn’t. You have been my inspiration this whole time. Whenever someone talked down about Downworlders, I would just think of how you had spared my life and how nice it had been to talk to you. We had you wrong for all this time and we have never given you a chance to explain yourself. That changes now.”

“I admire you, Alexander. The way you speak, you make me want to believe that it can work. I think that if we do work together, bringing change from each side then it might just be possible to change things, even if it might take practically forever. I already promised that I would always remember you and I don’t plan on breaking that any time soon.”

A comfortable silence fell over them as they stayed in each other’s embrace, sitting somewhat awkwardly on top of the table. It didn’t matter because right now it was most important that they were touching and together.

They both knew that the road ahead of them would be far from easy. But with a trusting partner by their side, they might have a chance to make a real change.

“I thought I would never see you again,” Alexander confessed.

“I wasn’t planning on showing up in your life again,” Magnus confirmed. “It was too painful to think of all the what-ifs. I’m quite happy that Catarina snatched you up.”

“Me too,” Alexander said with a grin. “It feels a bit like a second chance, you know? We weren’t ready last time but now… it feels different.”

“Yes,” Magnus agreed and closed his eyes and just enjoyed leaning against Alexander. He had chosen to disappear from his life seven years ago and it had been one of the hardest things he had done, despite how briefly they had known each other.

Now, after today, Magnus knew he wouldn’t be content without Alexander in his life. Even with all the troubles that their plan and potential relationship would bring, Magnus had the distinct feeling that it would be worth it.

They had been given a second chance at a life together.

Neither of them was capable of walking away a second time.

They belonged in each other’s lives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I could never have expected the lovely reaction that I got on the original work, so I wanted to write a sequel for these guys. They deserved a second chance and I had a lot of fun with flipping the roles around and the point of view. I will not be writing anymore of these two in this alternate universe because I feel like I can leave this here as a two shot and that makes sense. 
> 
> I'm very tired as I'm writing this because I have been at work all day and I'm currently posting every day in August and it's a lot of damn writing, even if I am also enjoying it. Check out my profile, or find me at tumblr @natigail and @secretlywritingstories if you like how I write. I probably won't have any more malec this month but I think I will return to the pairing eventually. Sorry for the long ramble but I hope you liked this!


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